This morning I got up (reluctantly) at 6 am and checked my bike tire.  It seemed to be in good shape, the rear wheel was still inflated, but seemed to need just a little more air.  Good enough to bike to work on though….

I hopped in the shower and thought about Monday’s biking travesty.  On my way back Monday I got not one, but two flat tires.  I managed to walk my bike back to my apartment (and thankfully it was on my ride home not to work) and then went for a run with Sarah.  I  left the bike alone for a day and finally got to it Tuesday night.

Weirdly enough both tubes had holes in exactly the same spot.  The holes were within millimeters of each other.  It was strange.  So I took a close look at both the rim and the tire itself.  I found no spokes coming through, no nails, thorns, tacks or anything of that sort in the tire.  I felt around the whole inside of the tire to see if there was anything sharp in there and found none.  I then patched both tubes, checked to see that the patches would hold, and put one back in the tire.  I inflated it, put some pressure on it, and it seemed to hold.

After my shower I put a few extra pumps of air in the tire.  It wasn’t bad, the tire just had more give than it should have.  I wheeled the bike to the door, got my shoes on, put some music on the ipod, grabbed my helmet and….. saw that the rear wheel was flat again.  What the hell.

So I’m taking the rear wheel to the bike shop tonight.  I’m just bringing it to work and then straight to the shop.  Although I can’t afford to spend a lot of money on it right now, I just put $350 into my car to have my brakes, rotors and other crap fixed.  Hopefully its nothing too big. Stupid bike.  I ride you to save money (and also stay in shape), not to spend money.

– On a side note, the latest Radiolab podcast describes the bicycle as a perfectly built machine to self torture yourself on.  Or something along those lines.  It made me laugh.